Nectar, or sugar water type bird feeders are extremely prone to insect, especially ant, contamination. There are numerous products that are commercially available to prevent ants from contaminating nectar type bird feeders. One of the most common barriers is a water “moat” hung above the feeder or designed integrally into the feeder (Ref. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,691,665, 4,901,673, 5,507,249 and 6,463,878). While water moats are effective, they require regular monitoring to fill and clean them. In hot, dry regions, water moats will require daily refilling and they frequently will go dry before the nectar in the feeder is replaced. Water moats work well, but many people find the maintenance and cleaning of them inconvenient. There are also physical barrier means to prevent inset contamination as detailed in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,640,927, 5,806,460 and 6,012,414 for “Nectar Feeder Access Devices”. While these devices are very effective, they also require regular cleaning.
There are also some “home remedy” measures such as putting vegetable oil or petroleum jelly on the feeder hanging cord, or around the perimeter of the feeder ports. There is available commercially a plastic or wooden “bell shaped” device which hangs between the feeder and the feeder hanging point into which the underside, petroleum jelly is applied. These home methods are marginally effective in the short term, but they tend to be very messy, require frequent cleaning, and the oil or petroleum jelly are prone to becoming rancid. The petroleum jelly often melts in hot weather conditions. Unfortunately, the petroleum jelly and/or vegetable oil usually end up on the feeder as they are prone to migration and, being only marginally effective, especially with larger insects (ants), they can even be tracked back to the feeder. Finally, the petroleum jelly and/or vegetable oil attract dirt which results in the need for frequent and relatively difficult cleaning and the need for regular re-application.
One of the most popular products for the prevention of ant contamination is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,782,662 4,890,416 and 5,274,950. This product marketed under the name Ant Guard™ is very convenient and effective at preventing ants from getting into nectar feeders. Unfortunately, this product uses a “absorbent disk” treated with the wide spectrum insecticide “Permethrin”. The Permethrin insecticide is very toxic to bees and fish. There are numerous warning messages on the packaging including “CAUTION”, “KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN”, “ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS—The Active ingredients in this disk are toxic to fish”, etc., etc. Due to the fact that this product uses an insecticide barrier, it is simply unacceptable to many bird feeding consumers and many specialty bird feeding retailers. The bird feeding consumer is typically a very environmentally conscious consumer, who prefers a non-insecticide, nontoxic solution to solving their insect (ant) contamination problems.